"تاريخ الحرب الكبرى استنادًا إلى وثائق رسمية: العمليات في بلاد فارس ١٩١٤-١٩١٩" [ظ‎‎١‎٤‎٣] (٥٦٦/٢٩١)

250
OPERATIONS IN PERSIA
Affair of surrendered. But as they were Bassaris he left them alone*
suTjuiy Ma i or Williams sighted Lieutenant Morleys party at about
^ 1917 . 5.30 a.m. as it was taking up a position on the hills west-south
west of the fort. From here, during the next hour or so it
completed the isolation of the fort by engaging and driving
back some more Bassari tribesmen.
By this time Major Chaldecott had also effectively cleared
several camps and had driven the tribesmen, including some
belonging to another section of the Qashqais, well back into the
hills to the south. Under orders from Major Williams, Jemadar
Partab Singh’s party, which had encountered heavy though
inaccurate fire, had joined Major Chaldecott; and at 6.30 a.m.
the combined parties, having driven the enemy back sufficiently,
joined Major Williams, whose detachment was still engaged in
a fire-fight with the fort.
The Indian troops, having been under arms for over fifteen
hours and having marched distances varying from thirty-three
to forty-six miles, were by this time all very tired and hungry.
But they responded with spirit to the order to assault the fort
starting at 7.30 a.m. An attack by tribesmen from the hills
to the south had, however, to be dealt with first and the advance
against the fort did not commence till 8 a.m., when it was
carried out in fine order and with great spirit and dash. Some
of the Qashqai and Bassari tribesmen made attempts to assist
the fort garrison by advancing from the hills. But these were
ineffectual, and the tribesmen in the fort, discouraged by the
steady determination of the advancing Indian infantry, started
to flee when these arrived within one hundred yards and fixed
bayonets. Streaming away through the hills to the south-west,
the discomfiture of the tribesmen was effectively completed by
the British fire; and by 9.30 a.m. fighting had ceased. Many
cattle in the fort and much property in the encampments were
captured; and of the 500 tribesmen engaged, 23 were known
to have been killed and many were wounded. The British
only suffered three casualties (one killed), while the moral
effect of the crushing defeat they had inflicted proved to be
ver y great among all the other tribes in Ears.
Operations Of On the 23rd August Lieutenant-Colonel Farran at Kerman
Mission^ r ^ ce i ye d news by telegraph that a party of Persian officers of
August 1917! the South Persia Rifles, travelling from Tehran to Kerman,
had been attacked near Anar by a large body of brigands, and,
* It was subsequently ascertained that this tribe had actually already sent
men and ammunition to assist the robber tribesmen, but Lieutenant Morley's
action stopped them sending any more.